NOTE: I'm posting this for my birthday, 3/3. It was written before the 2004 election.- ms

Why I won't Apologize for Calling Bush a Fascist

...not that anyone has asked me to

If you haven't read Fascism Anyone? by Laurence W. Britt, follow that link and do it now. You need to know this information in this election. I'm going to take the 14 points delineated by Britt and put them in perspective here. Remember, these are his points. The commentary is mine.

If there were one point here that didn't apply to this administration, I'd back down. Now check this out:

1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.

Since the attacks of the world trade center, there has been an attempt to control any form of dissent, or criticism of the Administration. Expressions of pride in being an American have taken on an almost militant form, expressed in pervasive displays of flags and pro-American themes in popular music and television.

"The Bush administration's objective of establishing U.S. domination over any potential adversary led to the hubristic, tragic miscalculation of the Iraq war, a painful adventure marked by one disaster after another based on one mistaken assumption after another." Al Gore

2. Disdain for the importance of human rights.

There ought to be limits to freedom.
-- George W. Bush

"People have to watch what they say and watch what they do." - Ari Fleisher, White House spokesman 9/26/01*

Since 9/11, people who are suspected of having ties to terrorism have been held indefinitely without access to counsel, courts, and are considered by the Administration to be exempt from the protections of the Geneva Convention. In spite of a recent court decision finding that the detainees do have rights of Habeus Corpus, the Administration has expressed that it has no intention of complying with the order of the court.

The Patriot Act has effectively suspended several protections guaranteed by the Constitution. Authorities may search anyone, at any time without probable cause. They can enter and search your home without notifying you. Communications can be monitored in unprecedented ways without a warrant.

No longer a leader in the fight for human rights around the world, America has been shown committing war crimes in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Grahib, and other locations throughout Iraq and Afghanistan. Photographic and video evidence has been withheld and suppressed by the media and the government. Items leaked through the press show prisoners being sexually violated and there is a number of unexplained deaths. Sy Hersch, the reporter fro the New Yorker who broke the story, has stated that there is video of boys being sodomized. Over 100 children are currently imprisoned at Abu Grahib. The Red Cross has been denied access to prisoners, and the Administration is now known to be keeping undocumented prisoners. Reports are that most of the people being held at Abu Grahib were detained in error. The abuses have been dismissed by Right Wing media personalities as nothing more than "fraternity pranks". A few low level soldiers are being court martialed in an attempt to portray the abuses as the work of a few poorly trained recruits. Documentation exists showing White House attorneys attempted to create a legal argument to justify the torturing of suspected terrorists well before the incidents at Abu Grahib, with full knowledge of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the White House.

Protest is now allowed only in established "Free Speech Zones." Those wishing to attend political rallies with the President or Vice President are required to sign a pledge to support their ticket in the upcoming election, and provide contact information and identification. The campaign reportedly asked a reporter's race before agreeing to issue credentials to cover one event. People have been removed from events for wearing or carrying t-shirts bearing pro-choice and other messages deemed "unsupportive" by the campaign.

3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.

"They are all "enemies of civilization," [Bush] said, and they share "a fanatical political ideology.1"

Frequent, nondescript terror warnings are common, usually timed to benefit the Bush Administration's polling numbers, or deflect attention from positive news of his opponent, Senator John Kerry. Former Governor Howard Dean has recently called public attention to the pattern.

4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.

"I'm a war president." -- G.W. Bush

The US invaded iraq in spite pleas from the UN Inspectors who wanted to continue inspections, which found no evidence of WMD's.
George Tenet of the CIA stated that there was no reason to suspect Iraq had WMD's. Bush told the American public that Saddam Hussein was an immanent threat, in spite of information to the contrary. An historical, world-wide peace march of 10 million people protesting the US invasion of iraq was dismissed by Bush as a "focus group".

Despite mounting evidence that Bush never completed his obligation to the National Guard, Bush is fond of appearing in front of military audiences. He donned a flight suit when he stood in front of a banner reading "Mission Accomplished" on the USS Lincoln and announced success in the Iraqi invasion. As of right now, 930 American soldiers have died since that announcement.

5. Rampant sexism.

Bush has been stacking the courts with reactionary judges known to believe that women should be subservient and abortion is murder. When blocked by Congress, Bush has gone so far as to appoint an extreme Right Wing Judge by executive order when congress had recessed.

The Right Wing's hatred of competent women is evident in their treatment of Hillary Clinton, Martha Stewart and Teresa Heinz Kerry.

Britt's words:

Beyond the simple fact that the political elite and the national culture were male-dominated, these regimes inevitably viewed women as second-class citizens. They were adamantly anti-abortion and also homophobic. These attitudes were usually codified in Draconian laws that enjoyed strong support by the orthodox religion of the country, thus lending the regime cover for its abuses.

Bush's support for an amendment to prohibit same sex marriages instigated the first Senate debates on an amendment that would formally limit the "full faith and credit" protections of 10 per cent of American citizens. Several extreme presentations by Senators likened homosexuality to bestiality, and literally prognosticated the end of civilization as we know it if gays were permitted to marry.

6. A controlled mass media.

Fox News, anyone? By the way, you can buy OutFoxed for under 10 Dollars from Amazon.com.

"Gore said media who challenge Bush and Cheney's claims of a link are intimidated by the administration.

"The administration works closely with a network of rapid-response digital Brown Shirts who work to pressure reporters and their editors for undermining support for our troops," Gore said. The term "Brown Shirts" refers to Nazi supporters in the 1930s and '40s." Al Gore

October 25, 2003—US Senator Robert Byrd, on the floor of Congress, on October 17, has explicitly compared the Bush media operation to that run by Herman Goering, mastermind of the Nazi putsch against the German people.

Why does the Bush administration lie so much? It is mainly because Bush's Svengali-like political adviser, Karl Rove, has taken to heart the advice of Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." When Lying Pays Off: The Fabrications of the Neo-Cons

7. Obsession with national security.

After 9/11, the government was reorganized around a new Department of Homeland Security, which has so far only served to provide vague warnings of terrorist plots when Bush's poll numbers drop. Bush constantly sates that he has made us safer, but that we are not safe.

8. Religion and ruling elite tied together.

Britt's words:

Unlike communist regimes, the fascist and protofascist regimes were never proclaimed as godless by their opponents. In fact, most of the regimes attached themselves to the predominant religion of the country and chose to portray themselves as militant defenders of that religion. The fact that the ruling elite’s behavior was incompatible with the precepts of the religion was generally swept under the rug. Propaganda kept up the illusion that the ruling elites were defenders of the faith and opponents of the “godless.” A perception was manufactured that opposing the power elite was tantamount to an attack on religion.

Bush's words:

"I've heard the call. I believe God wants me to run for president.2"

"God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East.3"

"And this is my solemn pledge: I will work to build a single nation of justice and opportunity. I know this is in our reach because we are guided by a power larger than ourselves who creates us equal in His image.4"

"Our job as leaders--Republicans, Democrats, nonaffiliateds--is to rally that compassion of America, is to call upon the love that exists not because of government, that exists because of a gracious and loving God."
AP story in LA Times, Aug 4, 2000 5"

"I also have this belief, strong belief, that freedom is not this country's gift to the world; freedom is the Almighty's gift to every man and woman in this world. And as the greatest power on the face of the Earth, we have an obligation to help the spread of freedom.6"

“I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.7"

Bush appealed to the Pope for help in getting American Bishops to support his agenda. The Bush/Cheney campaign has solicited churches to provide their member directories to the campaign. it is widely believed that there is a movement of Christian extremists who believe Bush was installed in office by none other than the Almighty.

"Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. He's in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this."

"I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real god and his was an idol,"

"the principalities of darkness. . . a demonic presence in that city that God revealed to me as the enemy".

9. Power of corporations protected.

Halliburton. Media Consolidation. Gutted environmental protections. Rolling back regulations on media consolidation. Creating a Health Care benefit that only benefits the drug companies. Record tax breaks for the wealthy.
Secret Energy Policy meetings and a complete refusal to open the records on it.

10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.

While Bush's economic policies have targeted the wages and security of working people, his union-busting efforts have tried to undermine the one tool we have available to protect ourselves - our unions.

Bush used rhetoric of "national security" to pursue the anti-union agenda he supported prior to the events of September 11th. In fact, Bush claimed that workers who wanted to preserve their collective bargaining right were opposed to national security and might be supporting terrorist efforts.

11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.

"There were many beautiful books, but as they contained nothing but superstitions and falsehoods of the Devil, we burnt them." - Diego de LANDA, Bishop of Yucatan

"Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings." - Heinrich HEINE, German poet (1797-1856) Used as inscription on memorial at Dachau concentration camp.

Disney was afraid to distribute Fahrenheit 9/11; Michael Eisner said he feared Disney would lose tax breaks for its amusement park in Florida, where the President's brother, Jeb Bush, is Governor.

Linda Ronstadt was ejected from the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas for dedicating a song to Michael Moore;

The Dixie Chicks saw their recordings burned(!) after apologizing for Bush at a concert in England; American radio stations kow towed to a boycott of their music pushed by Right Wing activists.

The publisher for Michael Moore's book Stupid White Men delayed its publication and wanted to shred existing copies the book for its criticism of Bush- it was saved only when American Librarians heard of the plan and mounted an internet campaign in its defense.

An Art dealer in California was driven out of business for displaying a painting that depicted the torture at Abu Grahib.

Media giantClear Channel fired shock-jock Howard Stern for obscenity, though Stern maintains it was because he criticized the Bush Administration.

Whoopi Goldberg was fired from her job promoting SlimFast after a Right Wing uproar resulted from a joke she made about Bush's surname at a Democratic Fundraiser.

The FCC lost its mind when Janet Jackson's nipple was accidentally exposed during half-time at the Super Bowl and sprang into action with attempts to intensify network censorship.

the Union of Concerned Scientists... has announced that more than four thousand scientists have now signed their February statement on scientific integrity--including 48 Nobel Laureates. The group also just released anew report showing that the Bush administration has blithely continued to do what it was originally accused of: Egregiously politicizing science.

Attorney General John Ashcroft recently attempted to have government manuals containing information on forfeiture procedures removed from public access.

I wanted to show the totals for civilian casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq - neither of whom had any history of aggression against America, and who's ruling regimes at the time of our invasion - the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, respectively- had previously been installed and funded by the United States. Subsequent investigations have shown that their was no connection between Iraq and 9/11. Afghanistan has now become a breeding ground for al Quaeda terrorism, and the Taliban is mounting attacks against women who register to vote. Apparently, few statistics are kept on civilian casualties and they are so highly disputed that most agencies don't want to release them.

13. Rampant cronyism and corruption.

Halliburton. Kenny-boy Lay and Enron. 'Nuff said.

Then, of course, their are the family ties to consider:

For 60 years it has been a matter of public record that Prescott Bush helped finance Hitler's rise to power and world war. Later a US Senator from Connecticut, Prescott was father to President George H.W. Bushand grandfather to George W. Bush. Because legal action was taken, Bush's deeds have been a matter of public record since 1942. They were widely covered in newspapers and electronic media at the time. The history is readily accessible8

After the seizures in late 1942 of five U.S. enterprises he managed on behalf of Nazi industrialist Fritz Thyssen, Prescott Bush, the grandfather of President George W. Bush, failed to divest himself of more than a dozen "enemy national" relationships that continued until as late as 1951, newly-discovered U.S. government documents reveal.

Furthermore, the records show that Bush and his colleagues routinely attempted to conceal their activities from government investigators.9

Similar denials have surrounded Arnold Schwarzenegger. It is a matter of public record that his father volunteered for the Austrian Nazi Party and the infamous SA, which engaged in brutal mass murder. Arnold himself has attempted to distance himself from his family's Nazi past. He has made large donations to the Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, which has tracked Nazi fugitives. His backers now claim he attended an anti-Nazi rally at an early age.

On the other hand, he has been linked to statements admiring Hitler for his speaking ability and his ability to gain a huge following. A past indicating a strong authoritarian nature has also been cause for alarm. In 1975, Schwarzenegger yearned for his own Nazi-style rally, "like Hitler in the Nuremberg stadium. And have all those people scream at you and just being [in] total agreement whatever you say."
***-[Karl]Rove is quoted in Bob Woodward's best-selling BUSH AT WAR as comparing the reaction of a New York Yankee crowd to an appearance by Bush as being "like a nazi rally."8

There have been rumors about Rove's family having built Birchenau, and information that Cheney, Wolfowitz and others in the Pentagon have ties to a particular brand of French fascism, but I can't find what I consider to be a reliable source for those. If it's out there, I'm confident someone will find it. For now, I have enough documentation of its roots, and we have all seen the pattern of consistent abuses of power.

14. Fraudulent elections.

Do you really want me to get started on that coup d'etat in 2000? As of right now, Black Box Voting.org says that up to 30% of the votes in the upcoming presidential elections are not verifiable and cannot be recounted if the machines fail or are subject to tampering.

The head of a company vying to sell voting machines in Ohio told Republicans in a recent fund-raising letter that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."10

“In a way that occurred before but is rare in the United States…somebody came to power as a result of the illegitimate acts of a legitimate institution that had the right to put somebody in power.That is what the Supreme Court did in Bush versus Gore. It put somebody in power,” said Guido Calabresi, a judge on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, which sits in Manhattan.

“The king of Italy had the right to put Mussolini in, though he had not won an election, and make him prime minister. That is what happened when Hindenburg put Hitler in. I am not suggesting for a moment that Bush is Hitler. I want to be clear on that, but it is a situation which is extremely unusual,” the judge said.

“When somebody has come in that way, they sometimes have tried not to exercise much power. In this case, like Mussolini, [Bush] has exercised extraordinary power. He has exercised power, claimed power for himself; that has not occurred since Franklin Roosevelt who, after all, was elected big and who did some of the same things with respect to assertions of power in times of crisis that this president is doing,” he said. 11

That's 14 out of 14. If it looks like a duck.... I know that the Anti-Defamation League has been consistent in asking that images of Hitler not be used in political campaign because they feel that to do so does not honor the victims of the holocaust. Under normal circumstances, I would agree that such imagery should be off limits. Having watched the consistent assault on American values perpetrated by this Administration, however, I am paying particular attention to anything that seems to extend the pattern. Michelle Malkin's new book, In Defense of Internment: The Case for "Racial Profiling" in World War II and the War on Terror, has alarm bells going off.

In Defense of Internment provides a radical departure from the predominant literature of civil liberties absolutism. It offers a defense of the most reviled wartime policies in American history: the evacuation, relocation, and internment of people of Japanese descent during World War II (three separate actions which are commonly lumped under the umbrella term “internment”). My book is also a defense of racial, ethnic, religious, and nationality profiling (widely differing measures that are commonly lumped under the umbrella term “racial profiling”) now being taken or contemplated during today’s War on Terror.

I was compelled to write this book after watching ethnic activists, historians, and politicians repeatedly play the World War II internment card after the September 11 attacks. The Bush Administration’s critics have equated every reasonable measure to interrogate, track, detain, and deport potential terrorists with the “racist” and “unjustified” World War II internment policies of President Roosevelt. To make amends for this “shameful blot” on our history, both Japanese-American and Arab/Muslim-American activists argue against any and all uses of race, ethnicity, nationality, and religion in shaping current homeland security policies. Misguided guilt about the past continues to hamper our ability to prevent future terrorist attacks. - -Michelle Malkin

How kind of Ms. Malkin to offer herself up as a "token torturer".(If the "oppressor" can get members of the oppressed group to do the wet work, they resent the "torturer", and thus themselves, rather than the original author of the oppression.) She's a very attractive advocate for Racism, uh, I mean, Racial Profiling. How can we criticize a "reasonable" action by the Bush administration to protect the country from the ever-present threat of terrorism when such a lovely woman says it's a good thing? Calling it Bigotry, or Xenophobia would be downright unAmerican. From there, it's a short step to locking up certain people of color - beginning with Muslims, of course- for their own protection. What the hell- we already have 2 Million people in prison for mostly non-violent crimes. Nobody that matters will miss a few followers of Islam, now will they?

It hasn't happened yet. Just remember - it DID happen before, and it happened HERE. It happened in Germany to the Jews, some of whom live right here, right now. If we truly want to honor them, we need to recognize the signs when we see them. 14 out of 14 is 14 too many for an American Presidency.

When a politico or flack starts ringing the alarm bells, it always pays to be a bit skeptical about what he or she is saying. I still have some doubts about Bradley Smith's warnings of impending FEC regulation of bloggers, yet I believe it's an important issue about which it pays to be very very clear. Lines in the sand need to be drawn.

People, this is a transparent power play. There is no new law. Its just a few off-hand comments one Commissioner made to a reporter at CNET. Just because Bradley Smith implies the Commission is going to go that way doesn't make it so. Even the smallest drop of knowledge about First Amendment law would tell you that such an interpretation has probably one of the steepest climbs in all of jurisprudence. Smith wants to make an end-run around the other members of the committee by undercutting their support. But they don't need support. They don't take orders from anyone. Why would Brad Smith think this? Because he does.

So before you go and submit a torrent of E-mails to the Democratic members of the FEC, stop and think. Am I really doing the right thing by reflexively doing the will of the Republican chair of the FEC?

The problem I have with this is that Iron Mouth is claiming that if I fight for my First Amendment rights, I'm somehow "doing the will of the Republican chair of the FEC."

In response, I ask this: So what?

Just because something is unconstitutional doesn't mean that the government won't try doing it. Consider the things the government is doing right now. I don't know about Iron Mouth, but I would rather not have to leave my First Amendment rights up to the current Supreme Court, nor would I want to have to keep a ledger of all the links and clicks and quotes in my blog relating to politics while the inevitable court challenge makes its way ever so slowly through the federal court system.

The thing is, there's is a lot more to the divide in this country than red/blue, left/right, progressive/conservative. There's a more profound divide between the governors and the governed, and more and more these governors are answerable not to the people but to the corporations, the insiders -- those who find it convenient to shut the people up and prevent them from rocking the boat.

Thus "tort reform" that would prevent people from suing corporations. Thus "bankruptcy reform" that would prevent individuals and small business owners from declaring bankruptcy.

And then there are these damn bloggers who don't obey orders and don't just swallow what the establishment feeds them. The DLC doesn't like them. The MSM don't like them. The lobbyists don't like them. The corporations don't like them.

"Time to do something about these bloggers!" they grumble, perhaps in smoke-filled rooms.

Bradley Smith may be playing games, and it's good that The Iron Mouth (and presumably others) are raising questions about his motives. Yet I don't think that means it's time to start waving party banners and digging trenches.

We may have some natural allies on this issue from libertarians on the right who are just as alarmed by the fascistic tendencies being exhibited by our government of late. If it takes an alarm about Democratic flacks to get their attention, well, so be it. But just because these presumably pro-regulation commissioners are Democrats doesn't mean we should turn a blind eye, either.

My believe is that we should stay on this -- and draw the line in the sand. We will not have our First Amendment rights taken away by anybody, not by well-intentioned Democrats, not by neo-facist martinets, not by paternalistic corporations offering "a better internet," not by anybody. The Internet (the free one) offers perhaps the greatest hope for the nurturing and flourishing of democratic (small 'd') ideals, dialogue, activism and engagement, and any threat to that helps enable what I and many see as the real potential for modern industrial societies to fall into despotic corporatocracies.

The suit against Rumsfeld focuses on an order he signed on Dec. 2, 2002 which authorized new interrogation techniques for detainees in the "war on terror" being held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The techniques included "stress positions," hooding, 20-hour interrogations, removal of clothing, exploiting phobias to induce stress, prolonged isolation and sensory deprivation.

Later, when evidence became overwhelming that prisoners were being tortured, Rumsfeld turned a blind eye and allowed the mistreatment to proceed, the suit alleges.

It will take a lot of noise to get any sort of response. The ACLU has an action page calling for a special prosecutor to look into the use of torture by the government.

Secretary Rumsfeld and other high-ranking military and civilian officials failed to stop the torture and degrading treatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo even after credible reports of abuses began to emerge in the media and in military documents. And the White House and Department of Justice schemed to remove safeguards against torture.

The American people deserve to know the truth about what torture tactics have been employed in the past and what tactics will be used in the future. This can only be accomplished by the appointment of an outside special counsel for torture and abuse investigations and prosecutions of civilians.

An array of already-released documents clearly show that top government officials considered and eventually ordered the removal of protections against many abusive detention and interrogation practices. It is clear that Secretary Rumsfeld personally authorized the military to abandon our nationâ€™s historic prohibition against torture or cruel and degrading treatment -- and limited investigations in a way that blocked high-ranking civilian or military officials, including himself, from being held accountable.

At the same time, the Department of Justice and White House were scheming ways to protect torturers and their enablers from prosecution.

Take action! Urge Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to appoint an outside special counsel to investigate any criminal conduct by civilians in ordering, or paving the way for, torture or abuse of prisoners.

The White House yesterday condemned human rights abuses in Iraq. (Yes, that's right -- Iraq with a 'q'!) Says the New York Times:

The State Department on Monday detailed an array of human rights abuses last year by the Iraqi government, including torture, rape and illegal detentions by police officers and functionaries of the interim administration that took power in June.

In the Bush administration's bluntest description of human rights transgressions by the American-supported government, the report said the Iraqis "generally respected human rights, but serious problems remained" as the government and American-led foreign forces fought a violent insurgency. It cited "reports of arbitrary deprivation of life, torture, impunity, poor prison conditions - particularly in pretrial detention facilities - and arbitrary arrest and detention."

Either they're goofing on us, or they really don't think anyone is paying attention.

The allegations of abuses by an Iraqi government installed by the United States and still heavily influenced by it provided an unusual element to the larger report. The report did not address incidents in Iraq in which Americans were involved, like the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, which came to light in 2004.

This is just one instance where America pays the price for embracing policies of torture and disregard for international standards and norms of human rights. Just a month ago, we had our new Secretary of State and Attorney General declaring to the Senate unwillingness to disavow and condemn torture, and refusal to take responsiblity for their parts in making torture a part of US military and paramilitary policy.

Who the fuck is the Bush Administration to condemn Iraq for acts of turture and human rights abuses that the Bush Administration itself advocated and administered in the very same country at the very same time?

What is this? Soviet Russia? Are we now supposed to pretend that Abu Ghraib never happened? Are we supposed to forget that Alberto Gonzales led the legal charge to rationalize and approve use of torture?

What sickens me -- what sickens millions of us Americans -- is that President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Rice, Attorney General Gonzales and a whole host of others have been employing these policies with a real self-righteousness based upon their own perverted, twisted views of humanity ... and they've been doing it in the name of America.

We are all soiled by their sin of torture. We all, as a people, will pay for their sin. Think about that.

Think about it when you look at the babies in strollers at the store, when you see children giggling and laughing on the playground, when you see ordinary people going about their lives every day. While each and every person in the Bush Administration refuses to take responsibility for his or her own actions (and their collective actions), and while they all refuse to disavow use of torture in American foreign -- and domestic -- policy, we Americans, including our children, will pay the price.

In our own country, we have American citizens being held without charges. Just yesterday, a federal judge ordered the Justice Department to either charge or release American citizen Jose Padilla:

The judge said he had no choice but to reject the president's claim that he had the power to detain Mr. Padilla, who was arrested in May 2002 at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago and was later accused of having planned to detonate a radiation-spewing "dirty bomb" in the United States as part of a plot by Al Qaeda.

"To do otherwise would not only offend the rule of law and violate this country's constitutional tradition," Judge Floyd wrote, "but it would also be a betrayal of this nation's commitment to the separation of powers that safeguards our democratic values and individual liberties."

Judge Floyd, who was nominated to the court by President Bush in May 2003, said that to agree with the president would "be to engage in judicial activism," a phrase often used by the White House to criticize rulings with which it disagrees.

Although Judge Floyd's opinion was notable for its sweeping language, its substance was not a surprise because it reflected a Supreme Court ruling last June in a related case involving Yaser Esam Hamdi. Mr. Hamdi, a Saudi who was an American citizen by virtue of his birth in the United States, was arrested on the battlefield in Afghanistan and held as an enemy combatant in the same brig in Charleston.

The justices ruled that Mr. Hamdi was entitled to have his case heard in court, saying "a state of war is not a blank check for the president."

Yes, these men may be very bad men -- they may be very very very bad horrible men. But in this country called America, there's this thing called the Constitution, and it says, among other things, that the President cannot just lock people up willy nilly. Every American is entitled by right to know what he or she is charged with and to face his or her accusers and have his or her day in court. The are our rights as citizens of the United States of America.

Why President Bush and his cohorts disagree, I don't know. But "law and order" without the law part is not justice, it's dictatorship.

America used to stand for freedom and justice and opportunity. But now, to the rest of the world, America stands for torture and killing on a mass scale -- all a part of doing what America wants to do rather than doing what is right. And we have President Bush and company to thank for it.

Al-Qaeda is a hate group that uses indiscriminate killing and horror to try to achieve its goals (whatever they might be). Why must we become more like them in order to fight them? Why must we become more like them in order to fight everyone else?

People are really worried about the future of Social Security. To listen to the talking heads, you'd think it's an episode of "Fear Factor." Should people be afraid? Is Social Security really going to run out of money? Has it already? If it is failing, who will save the system, and if it cannot be saved, what does that mean for the average family, growing ever more gray at the temples?

So, I put it to the cards in the manner handed down to me from my mother who learned Tarot from the Gypsies.

The Significator, this is what the Tarot reading speaks to: The Knight of Swords. "Hasty action." The knight charges, sword drawn. The hothead. Emotionalism. Not thinking things through. The established order acts in haste. If we think about the Bush Administration and their record on the Weapons of Mass Destruction, they acted hastily and the Knight of Swords showed up there. In this case, we see hotheaded action once again and not well thought through. The watchword here is "Chicken Little."

The Administration is alarming the "silent majority" right on the heels of the election

Covering Card, this covers him: Ace of Wands. In this case, it is "the gift," or that which is promised. Wands are cards of the land - wood, forest, earth, the working people. This is something that has been promised.

It will be hard to tell people they will not get what they were promised and what they have paid into. It is one thing for some corporation to not make good. It is another thing for the government to "default."

Crossing Card, behind the scenes - everything has a secret side: Two of Pentacles "The Manipulator" The "operator," the guy who plays the "shell game." He plays by the rules, even if the rules are heavily in his favor and lines his pockets, and if someone ends up losing, that's the way the cookie crumbles. No matter how this goes, he is going to win because, like any broker, he gets a commission regardless of who wins and who loses.

The money men around Bush are doing their thing. They are out of touch with the people who put them in the seats of power.

The Foundation, this is below him on which he stands: Ten of Cups. This is "family." These are the people who believe in "family values." These are the people who "focus on the family." This issue gets Americans where they live and where they eat. The Administration is telling the American people it will prevent terror, but the social security issue is closer to them than terror or Iraq.

The Administration is now smack in America's heartland and this is probably the first bread-and-butter issue to capture the national consciousness in a long time. Social Security might not be much, but it was always the bedrock and fallback. If all else failed, there was always social security - what Reagan called the "safety net."

Behind, this is finished business: Six of Cups. "Childhood; things of the past." These are the things of childhood. The promises. The dreams of youth. This is the relationship of younger people to older people.

The baby boomers are beginning to get gray. Their own parents made out well enough and part of America's promise was that the next generation would also do well. It would seem the Administration, as it does away with the New Deal programs, thinks it has a mandate to Republicanize New Deal promises, but dreams of even a modest retirement run deep with this group. Moreover, the vast majority of Americans have been paying into this program for years - since childhood.

Bush misunderestimates the bedrock he has encountered.

Above, what is hanging in the air: Ace of Cups "The Gift of Self." Individuality. The Heart. The Ace of Hearts. A very good outcome hovers in the air, but it may not happen.

So far the Administration has not been able to find that lever they have always found to rally people around their programs. There is no good news in anything that the administration is saying.

People believe this is an answer. What does this cup hold?

In Front, this is right in front. Death "Change. An end to the status quo." The change that is come effects all. An end of stagnation. Karmic forces are at work.

It would seem the Administration has set the wheels into motion. The king, the commoner, the children, the cleric - none will be spared. It would seem that events are now moving on their own and not entirely in the control of the neo-cons or progressives. The genie is out of the bottle.

The Outcome, What is the outcome of all this? Page of Cups, Seven of Pentacles, Nine of Swords. One card came out with two cards seemingly refusing to let go, so in the Old World way, this is read as a basic card with two modifiers, leading to a richer meaning.

The Page of Cups is a "New Message." A fish in a cup? It is the intuitive taking form. It is self-examination. It is a card of secrets. Is this the same cup that hovered over us in "what hangs in the air?" That cup is now examined - the cup that runneth over. Once cup of plenty. The American Dream according to Bush.

Modifying this card is the Seven of Pentacles which is "Concern for the Harvest; anxiety about produce." The harvest was planted, but its fruits are in doubt. It is not that the farmer has not worked hard. Notice the staff he leans on, the same one we saw in the covering card - the Ace of Wands. This is no "welfare shirker." He is someone who believes in the story of the "Ant and the Grasshopper." He has been a good "ant." Now, as he looks in the cup, it dawns on him that he shares much with those "grasshoppers" who he once believed fell on hard times due to their own laziness and lack of planning.

We worries that despite his best effort, he will share the same fate. It isn't fair!

Nine of Swords which means "Nightmare. Despair." A card of bad omen - the death card of the Tarot deck. With the concern for the harvest and the card of bad omen, the outcome is about as bad as it gets if we are talking about harvesting seeds that were planted.

The Meanings: The Social Security situation could be a debacle all the way around. This issue touches every voter directly or indirectly and for once in a long time, "guns or butter" will resurface as an issue. In Economics 101, the student is confronted with the idea that resources are limited. A society can make weapons or it can produce food and if a lot goes into weapons, less can go into food.

Will the electorate get savvy and connect the money spent in Iraq with the Social Security shortfall? Will there be resentment in that a war uncovered no weapons of mass destruction?

The Administration's money men are chomping to get their hands on the Social Security funds, yet the Administration has not offered a plan that seems to have ignited the rank and file. Social Security was never meant to be speculative. And how good are the neo-cons at managing money? It is not exactly great news for the Administration to come in and say the fund is bankrupt when the previous party left a balanced budget and the current Administration has gone trillions into debt.

All the cards are very interesting, but I find the story in the Significator, Foundation, Behind, and In Front spread: that is, Knight of Swords, Ten of Cups, Six of Cups, Death. All, but the Knight, are cards having to do with family - childhood, growth, and death. The Social Security fund, for all the grumbling, is an emotional "given," and to take it away, or curtail it, or put at risk when people have paid in will be seen as a major failure of the Administration.

The Administration will bring good news of how benefits will not be affected. Perhaps. However, the great Democratic bloc has always taken this for granted.

The Administration has not shown much fiscal responsibility and is vulnerable to charges of being poor money managers who rush into things, only to be proven wrong in the end. Yet, the Democrats seem to not be doing any better.

The issue is not so much about money here, but about heart. The Two of Pentacles and the Seven of Pentacles are the only money cards. The predominant suit is cups - matters of the heart and family. "Family Values."

The Administration may be paying lip service to family values, but it will not be forgotten if income checks look like they may head south, or if Wall Street makes windfall profits and here the Bush Administration is truly vulnerable for they do not have a strong, clear, believable, message that is playing in Middle America.

Maybe what the voters sense is that the politicians don't know what to do and maybe the voters hear (the fish and) the message.

Trickle down economics was sold to Democratic voters, who have been steadily and increasingly supporting neo-cons, because all yachts will rise.

In the 1980's we saw hostile takeovers and the likes of Milliken and Boesky and the words "junk bond," "greenmail" and "hostile takeover" came into our language. Buccaneer capitalists took over corporations and got a hold of their pension funds, which they stripped out.

Any of this sound familiar?

We have a group that is privatizing government. There is a hostile take-over under way. We have seen this before and now it is happening on a grand scale.

I suggest, if this is a bit hazy, rent "Wall Street" on DVD and see just what the cards hold in store.